Just two weeks after rejecting a claim that the FCC's rule against the broadcast of a telephone conversation without permission was unconstitutional, the Commission's Enforcement Bureau made clear that it would not hesitate to enforce that rule - and enforce it vigorously. In a recent decision, the Commission proposed a $25,000 to a broadcaster who ran two different telephone conversations on the air without the prior permission of the people at the other end of the phone line. The broadcasts were carried on three different stations, and the licensee involved in the case (Spanish Broadcasting Systems) had been fined before for violations of this rule (Section 73.1206 of the FCC's rules), so the FCC felt that it needed to issue a fine that would make an impact - thus the significant fine that is far in excess of the fines normally seen in these kinds of cases.
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